entrepreneur

Y’all know I keep it 100 over here. Today I’d like to talk a little about the good, bad, and ugly of my current entrepreneurial journey. Too many folks write only about the good, but that is limited in its instruction and inspiration. It’s the bad and ugly of the entrepreneurial process to which most people relate and from which they have useful takeaways.

To steal a line of gallows humor from one of my advisors, “It’s always darkest before it’s pitch black.” That is some dark ass humor, but it’s true; at least in my experience. What the joke doesn’t say though, is if you keep working and maintain a positive attitude, eventually, the sun does shine.

I suppose what is good, bad, and ugly is subjective, but here’s my assessment of my situation. (more…)

If you’re an entrepreneur, you know the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat! Ok, so I stole that line from the iconic, old school ABC Wide World of Sports intro:

But on the road to basking in your entrepreneurial victories and bouncing back from your agonizing defeats, there are lots of things you are doing for your business that you expect will have a positive impact on sales. It’s terrific when your strategies and tactics work, but how do you manage your mental health when things don’t go as planned? And if you’re anything like me, this happens a lot.

If you’re an entrepreneur, feeling anxiety and fear is probably something you experience regularly. When I say regularly, I mean daily, in some cases.

Anxiety is caused by fear, and I think of it as fear’s younger, impetuous cousin.

For entrepreneurs, managing fear is the most important thing she/he has to learn to maintain her/his mental health, which matters because a positive frame of mind leads to better results for her/his business.

No matter how old you are, anyone can suffer with anxiety. Especially when it comes to making business decisions, it can be quite difficult. With anxiety, you’re always overthinking and that never works in your favour. I was speaking to a friend of mine who mentioned that I should looking into the idea of using cbd oil to help calm my nerves and manage my anxiety effectively. I’ve yet to give it a go, but I did read something like a cbd pure review, which sounds promising. Anything that I can find to help is always a bonus.

Conversely, a negative mindset, brought on by fear, keeps you from making connections you need for your business because successful people don’t want to associate with negative people. And a negative mindset often prohibits you from receiving the inspiration you need to move your business forward.

In the worst case, fear leads to depression, which if not treated, can lead to the unthinkable. (more…)

I teamed up with TODAY Show contributor and media entrepreneur, Mario Armstrong, and his right-hand-man, Shy Mukerjee, to offer tips for new entrepreneurs about how to manage the crickets that are sure to come.

You know, crickets: when you call, and call, and call, or email a potential customer or strategic partner, and they NEVER get back to you. It’s like you don’t exist.

The only difference between successful and unsuccessful CEOs is the successful ones never quit. That’s it. Not being super-smart, or having the best product or service. Just not quitting.

When a CEO is struggling with her business there is always a move she can make that might turn her fortunes around. She just has to be persistent enough to discover what the move is, and have the fortitude to make it.

On the path to fulfilling our dreams, or personal legend (as described in the book, The Alchemist), and becoming great, there will be moments of triumph, and moments of pain.

This morning I saw a great graphic in the Facebook Group, StartupDadHQ, and the timing could not have been more perfect, as my day yesterday was painful as hell. What I found interesting was my response to the pain.

I’d like to share something amazing that happened, and something pretty challenging. Then my self-observation, which I think might be insightful for some entrepreneurs, and I suspect many others will be like, “Yep, I totally get that.” (more…)

Simon and I worked together at The ABSOLUT Spirits company before it was acquired by Pernod Ricard in 2008. Back then, Simon was a respected taste maker in the spirits game, who traveled the globe befriending and influencing the world’s best bartenders.

Today Simon is an entrepreneur, recently starting his own spirits company, The 86 Co., and he’s a new dad trying to figure out how to balance the startup grind and raising a family.

I caught up with Simon and talked with him about how things are going.

This is a guest post by Bill Roth. Bill is a dad of six, an entrepreneur, and current founder of Brand Comics, a company that creates custom comic strips for content marketing & lead nurturing campaigns.

Now, over to Bill!

I recently read that the biggest contributor to failed startups is a sustained loss of enthusiasm by the founder(s); this makes sense.

As a bootstrapper that’s pursued 15 businesses, profitably built 6, and sold 2 (over 14 years), I can say from experience: enthusiasm = momentum. (more…)

Since starting this blog last August, I’ve met lots of parent entrepreneurs living the ‘trepLife. These folks inspire me and I’m going to start regularly featuring them and their products.

I recently met Sean Singleton on Twitter and we hit it off right away. Sean is a passionate dad, and a front-end web designer, so I was curious because I’m always thinking about how to improve my website. But what really intrigued me about Sean was his side-hustle business, an inspired t-shirt line called The PopLyfe, and his reason for starting it.

Someone shared my article on Facebook and described me in a way I hadn’t previously viewed myself. It was interesting because sometimes it’s hard to know how others perceive you. Then there’s that potential gap between others’ perception of you and self-perception.

In this case, there was definitely a perception gap, and I think it’s a good thing.

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Hi, I'm James: a husband, co-founder of the world's cutest twins, published author, and a tech founder of WeMontage.com.
'trepLife Dad is a place where we parent entrepreneurs can inspire one another and learn together.